All About Pocket Knives

I was asked to post some links in a sticky thread for folks to reference.
These are some good links to research military related knives, both American & European.

Thanks for the links Gringo, great information in them!
-Dale

gringo wrote: http://www.germandaggers.com/Gallery/Makers.php


http://arms2armor.com/Swords/euroswrd.htm


http://www.scribd.com/doc/39088889/Cami ... 41-to-1946

Thanks Dale, nice to see them up and hope me trying to help didnt hold you back to much, lol

here is a good one on bayonete identification...the weird little variants.

http://www.old-smithy.info/bayonets/190 ... yonets.htm

swords links.
http://arms2armor.com/Swords/usswords.htm

main site:http://www.arms2armor.com/index.htm

I'd not want to be without the collected information at Frank Trzaska's site US Military Knives http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/. Gibson and Ruleford's Military Fighting Knives is often useful in identifying knives, as well as showing examples in excellent condition http://www.militaryfightingknives.com/. Some of the best discussion of US military knives takes place on the USMilitaria knife forum http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... howforum=8 (even if the new site design is painful to look at). While membership is required, the Military Knives and Daggers of the World forum is often useful in identifying military knives of other countries http://gotavapen.se/market/index.php?si ... a49199bf70.

AWESOME GUYS!!!!

NICE THREAD!







JUNEBUG

http://www.quanonline.com/military/mili ... agger.html


http://www.germandressdaggers.com/

http://www.germanmilitaria.com/Galleries/Edged.html

Great link Donald!
Thanks!

BTW, has anyone here tried to grip one of these German daggers?
They may look cool but they are impossible to get a comfortable grip on them.
The points that stick down on the pommel are quite uncomfortable where they dig into the fleshy part of the hand!
I guess they were made to look good, not to really use!

For Fairbairn Sykes commando knives, my go to site is http://www.gotavapen.se/gota/artiklar/fs/fs_knife1.htm

Orvet, the various WWII German daggers (SA, SS, etc) were designed after the earlier Swiss "Holbein dagger," which in turn descended from the baselard. In Swiss history, they were usually paired with a katzbalger (or occasionally a kriegmesser, or both). Right about now a few folks are wondering how the design got to Germany, and why it matters. . . .

Way back about 1485-1490, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, king of many places including Germany, Archduke of Austria, etc, etc, started the landsknechte. This was originally a mercenary regiment consisting largely of German pikemen. Emperor Maximilian hired a German (well, we'd call him a German now, then he was a Swabian) named Georg von Frundsberg to organize the landsknechte; he, in turned, hired Swiss mercenaries (mostly officers) to train the landsknechte. This is where the Holbein dagger (and katzbalger and kriegmesser) appeared in German military history.

The landsknechte were early adopters of firearms to supplement and support their pike men, something many other armies and mercenary regiments were slower to do. Particularly in later years, the landsknechte were also almost what we'd today consider to be a "mixed multinational force."

The National Socialist party co-opted a lot of earlier Germanic history and folklore to try to support the legitimacy of the Third Reich. Katzbalgers and kreigmessers were inconveniently large, but that iconic dagger was much easier for people to carry and display, and at least subconsciously signal that the bearer was a soldier. This was done in other areas as well: if you look at the silhouette of some of the uniform designs (not just military--everyone and their dog had a uniform in Nazi Germany, and many groups such as the postal service even had special rifles and bayonets!), you can see similarities to "Almain rivet" (a type of armor worn by the landsknechte at one point). The mixed-nationality aspect of the landsknechte was mentioned a couple times in defense of the decision to add troops of other nationalities to the Heer and Waffen-SS.

During WWII, the Holbein-pattern dagger was never really intended to be a combat weapon; it was a badge of office or membership. It did get used in combat at times: the fighting near the end in Stalingrad comes to mind, as well as a couple of instances during pseudo-surrenders near the end of the war. By all accounts it was an effective weapon.

A friend of mine was a Kripo--Kriminalpolizei (police detective)--during and after the war. He's mentioned investigating a couple of murders where one of these daggers was used. His thoughts are that the grip lock's the user's hand in place, so it didn't slip over the guard in stabbing, or slip from the hand when the user attempted to withdraw the knife from victim. The grip shape forced the user to rely on power in the stroke, rather than finesse. As a result, what he saw in murder victims was multiple deep stab wounds, and tremendous loss of blood.

While the daggers didn't get much actual use, and were largely symbolic, when put to their original use they seem to have been just as effective as the original Holbein daggers.

http://www.lodz-ghetto.com/kripo.html,10

http://ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/wielen1.htm
http://www.tutorgigpedia.com/ed/Kriminalpolizei

The Kriminalpolizei was mainly concerned with serious crimes such as rape, murder and arson. A main area of the group's focus was also on "blackout burglary," considered a serious problem during bombing raids when criminals would raid abandoned homes, shops and factories for any available valuables. The Kripo was also one of the sources of manpower used to fill the ranks of the Einsatzgruppen and several senior Kripo commanders, Artur Nebe among them, were assigned as Einsatzgruppen commanders.


Kripo researchers measure a Sinti boy's head in anthropological studies of criminals, Stuttgart in 1938As part of the Nazi doctrines on crime and race, the Rassenhygienische und Bevolkerungsbiologische Forschungsstelle () headed by Nazi psychiatrist Dr. Robert Ritter, was attached to the Kriminalpolizei. Its role was to create racial profiles of non-aryans, in particular, Roma. Both the Gestapo and the Kripo deferred their policies and guidelines to the Criminal Biological department on how to deal with Gypsies.[6] The Kripo aided in the round ups of Roma and their deportations to concentration camps and extermination camps.

gringo wrote:http://www.lodz-ghetto.com/kripo.html,10

as
Aside from operating under the same name, I'm not sure what the actions of a bunch of war criminals have to do with the observations of a Karlsruhe-area police detective regarding the use of military daggers during the years 1939-1952, or the history of a regional military dagger variant.

Oh wait, I see: nothing.

I'm done with trolls, and I'm done with this thread.

Hi Guys

It it's not considered too cheeky. I would like to list my web page for inclusion here.

The Australian Military Knives Web Page.

http://www.australianmilitaryknives.com/

This site is dedicated to the manufacturers and the men and woman of the Australian Army, Navy and Air Force and the forces of the allied nations who carried and used Australian made knives in the defence of our freedoms.


Regards Dutchy

Thanks Dutchy!

We don't often get links with Australian knife info, I am glad to have it!
I have always wondered, do you have factories in Australia that make pocket knives, or are most imported?

Thanks again!

orvet wrote:Thanks Dutchy!

We don't often get links with Australian knife info, I am glad to have it!
I have always wondered, do you have factories in Australia that make pocket knives, or are most imported?

Thanks again!

Hi Dale

Sadly, there is no Cutlery Industry in Australia.

The only evidence I have found for pocketknife manufacture in Australia was the WW2 and post war production from a limited number of engineering firms who tooled up to make knives for the war effort. The most prolific and the most long lasting was Whittingslowe Engineering in Adelaide. They did not survive the post war era and closed their doors in the 1950's. As you see by their post war newspaper advertisement they made a range of knives.



Most of the pocket knives sold in Australia are imported. Unfortunately, due to the unreasonable interpretation of what is a Flick Knife in Australia, Australian Customs no longer permit the import of any One Handed Opening knives.

All of the Clasp Knives supplied to the Australian Military and all of the Multi Tools are imported. Sadly, most now come from China. One poor example is the Schrade (Not so tough) multitool which is a piece of crap. Most get thrown away and replaced with a Leatherman!!

There are some very good Custom Knife makers in Australia who from time to time make small batches of high quality folding knives. These are highly sought after by collectors and users alike and sell very quickly. Some of these makers are members of the ABF site and show their creations there.

Regards

Dutchy

Here's a really useful website with a lot of commando knife information...

http://www.fairbairnsykesfightingknives.com

dutchy357 wrote:

orvet wrote:Thanks Dutchy!

We don't often get links with Australian knife info, I am glad to have it!
I have always wondered, do you have factories in Australia that make pocket knives, or are most imported?

Thanks again!

Hi Dale

Sadly, there is no Cutlery Industry in Australia.

The only evidence I have found for pocketknife manufacture in Australia was the WW2 and post war production from a limited number of engineering firms who tooled up to make knives for the war effort. The most prolific and the most long lasting was Whittingslowe Engineering in Adelaide. They did not survive the post war era and closed their doors in the 1950's. As you see by their post war newspaper advertisement they made a range of knives.



Dutchy

I know this is an old post but I just read through it tonight and felt I had to comment on it.
Here is a pic of a knife I acquired several years ago from a flea market. Definitely military and definitely Australian made.

knife7knut
I have only seen one knife like yours. One of the shearers showed it to me and wanted to find information.
It was the first I knew of pocket knives being built in Australia.
I looked it up in Dutchy site.
http://www.australianmilitaryknives.com/

Grant

Here is an excellent 41 page softcover book that shouldn't be too hard to find at a good price and it covers the subject exhaustively.

I collect bayonets and WorldBayonets.com is always my initial go to online reference.

http://worldbayonets.com/index.htm

Not a link, but an interesting article from a
February 1945, New York newspaper.
Click on the picture to ENLARGE.

New_Windsor_NY wrote: ↑Sat Aug 21, 2021 2:04 pm Not a link,

Thanks, what a great article.

Cool article, Skip, thanks for posting. You find the best knife info from periodicals.


A great M3 resource with pictures-
http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/m3.htm

RevolverP320 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 21, 2021 3:48 pm Thanks.....

You're welcome and thank you.

1967redrider wrote: ↑Sat Aug 21, 2021 4:47 pm Cool.....

You're welcome and thank you John.

Here is a Pic of my WW2 Russian Vodka Flask. Typically I put Tequila in it, not Vodka. You can see the years, A Mig and Hammer & Sickle. Thought you guys may enjoy looking at it. It`s colorful. Mike